Steve Earle: Self-Professed Newspaper Addict: "You think the media is now swinging to the right?

Earle: It's not that it's right-wing or left-wing, it's just that they're doing the same thing radio is doing -- doing market research and pandering to a market they've identified. I'm ready to do the Bill O'Reilly show on Fox this month, but equating that with a real political discussion is like believing pro wrestling is real. It's just pandering to our worst instincts, and it works. They've just identified a market and can sell to it. It sells more beer. "

this issue came up during my Thanksgiving trip with family. There, they assumed completely that the "liberal" media was anti-Christian. Maybe they are, I don't know. I suggested to them that the media wasn't necessarily biased ideologically, but biased against substance. Much easier to focus on Jacko and Lewinsky instead of explaining the Medicare debate and covering the legitimate questions concerning patriotism and the war on terror. I think I said there was a "stupid" bias. I think that Steve Earle has a great point. News, all of it, seems to be a way to simply sell stuff.